Visiting Ireland

24/02/2024

24/02/2024

The Lakes of Killarney from Aghadoe! 😍 Pic: Liam Barry

24/02/2024

From €49pps

23/02/2024

Have you ever wondered about the journey to become a Sommelier? What even is a Sommelier? ….Well, a Sommelier is a trained and knowledgeable wine

22/02/2024

Connemara
https://irish-homes.com/connemara.htm

22/02/2024

Ahamore Abbey is situated a little further along the coast from Daniel O'Connell's ancestral home at Derrynane.

The ruined medieval church once belonged to an Augustinian Abbey. It is located near the town-land of Caherdaniel and is very close to Derrynane House, the home of Irish liberator Daniel O'Connell. 😍 Pic: Tuatha

22/02/2024

Derrynane on the Ring of Kerry! 😍 Pic: Tourism IRL

22/02/2024

Goodnight from Dublin. Sleep well 💙
📷 Riccardo Rea Photography

22/02/2024

A 200-year-old lighthouse standing on the coast of the largest of the Aran Islands is up for sale, offering a rare opportunity to own a historical landmark.

21/02/2024

Maumturk Mountains
From

Nestled in the cradle of the Maumturk Mountains, this corner of Connemara has always been a peaceful haven of quiet and solitude 🏞 Where do you let your mind wander to when relaxing midweek?
📸 Patrickgalvinphotography

Get your Free Ireland Travel Bundle - https://loveireland.substack.com/

21/02/2024

When the sun hits right 🇮🇪🌞

18/02/2024

Sometimes Connemara just takes your breath away 😲😍 Have you ever visited this beautiful region?

📍 Camus, Connemara, Co. Galway
📸 .wild.atlantic.tours

18/02/2024

Goodnight from Dublin 💙
📷 Patrick Tyrrell Photography

11/02/2024

The Cliffs of Moher Co.Clare 💙💛
Formed over 320 million years ago 💚☘️
-click on photo for full image ✅️ 🇮🇪
Ferd's Photos 📸

11/02/2024

A WARM WELCOME TO MAAM VALLEY: Part I (1880)

In May 1880, Gertrude Clements visited Maam Valley for a six-day sojourn. Clements and her husband, Henry, of Co. Cavan had inherited the estate from the hated Lord Leitrim two years earlier.

Despite the dangerous nature of the times, 1880 being in the heat of the Land War, Mrs Clements wrote of the warm welcome she received to the area.

'13 May 1880 - We left Galway in a comfortable open carriage for Maam at a quarter past 12.

We passed pretty bits of wood and some old places with stone gateways, once inhabited by gentry but now mostly ruined or to let, except one very old castle and many ruined cottages whose owners had probably gone to America in bad times.

Notwithstanding, the woods looked green, the fields rich and the views of Lough Corrib enhanced the beauty of the scenery.

The pastures were perfectly yellow with cowslips of more than ordinary size and primroses and hawthorn were plentiful by the roadside.

About three o'clock, we arrived at Oughterard, on market day. The street was full of very picturesque country people dressed in every variety of crimson, madder, pink and brown petticoats with bright shawls over their heads.

The men were in frieze coats, breeches & grey stockings. Many of them had donkeys with panniers in which were cabbage plants for sale brought from Lough Corrib islands.

We were given excellent tea, eggs, bread and butter in a very clean inn and went on in an hour through a bleak flat way to Maam.

The view became pretty when the mountains came into view and at the inn at the Maam Cross roads we met Mr George Robinson (the land agent) who followed us on his car to Maam.

A small boy who was tending some cattle took to running by the carriage with an amount of energy and skill over the rough banks and tussocks of grass, positively surprising.

Crossing an iron bridge built by Nimmo the engineer we found ourselves at the Maam Hotel, six hours, including one hour's rest, 26 miles from Galway.

The hotel is remarkably small, consisting of one sitting room with a bow window and two bedrooms opening into it and one other bedroom which the Mellett family give up when it is necessary.

We were quite unexpected, as Henry did not wish for a great demonstration, but poor Mrs Mellett was very much put out at having no notice as she had so little in the house, but I daresay the plan was a good one.

We had dinner and went to bed.

14th May: A fine day, but rather cold still. The poor people are gradually finding out about our arrival. We walked around this morning and saw the post office and courthouse, rather a good stone building.

I made a sketch and gathered some very pretty flowers. A blue digitalis, pink vetch, yellow pimpernels, bell heather and many other little plants. The ferns about here are beautiful Harts tongue.

Old Armstrong, the bailiff, came out and walked with us, but he is continually guarded by two men. Nevertheless, the bad times obliged him to try and make a little money by them.

It is remarkable in this poor country, where the houses are so small and inconvenient and so many of the people have not enough to eat and where the grazing is on such shallow, rocky soil, that the people, with very few exceptions, should be so much better clothed than in other parts of Ireland where they are better off.

The men are always in comfortable homespun tweeds and friezes, warm and often pretty with clothes of white or black and white flannel for working suits and invariably look well dressed.

The woman wear warm flannel, either brown, black or white or various shades of crimson, pink and brown.

The little girls nearly always have clean pinafores and calico jackets and are decidedly clean and tidy.

On Sundays, the women wear very large blue cloaks and a neat light shawl over their heads for going to church (which is often a long expedition) - and they never buy gaudy finery or clothes that will not last.

On our return from Kilmilkin, as we approached the hotel we beheld a crowd and two youths bearing between them a sort of banner of scarlet with white letters adorned with green leaves and "Cead Mile Failte".

This was carried in front of us as Mr. Mellett (the hotelkeeper) whacked the horse for several hundred yards, and the crowd followed.

The banner was finally planted against the bridge opposite the windows of the little hotel, for us to contemplate.

All the evening, men hang about the bridge and women sit under the wall knitting.

Our appearance at the door is always a signal for one or another to come up with a letter and the number we have been given altogether is past counting - all either begging for help or for some alteration in their farm and land.'

Part II tomorrow.

Picture of Maam, courtesy NLI.

Courtesy also to Brigid Clesham who wrote a fine article on this topic in the Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society of 2015

11/02/2024

11/02/2024

Alexa, show me heaven…

📍Bloody Foreland near Gweedore, County Donegal

📸 The amazingly talented

11/02/2024

'There is a rapture on the lonely shore.'

~ Lord Byron (1788-1824)

You’ll find this lonely shore on An Blascaod Mór, The Great Blasket, largest of an uninhabited group of islands off the coast of County Kerry. The beach is called Trá Bán, White Strand, and during Winter up to 1000 seals haul themselves up onto it, a wonderful sight to see. Those abandoned houses in the background are evidence of the small population who lived here on the island until 1953 when the Irish government evacuated them to the mainland. The islanders themselves had been asking to be relocated since 1947 because increasingly extreme weather often left the island cut off. The catalyst that finally brought it about was the death of Blasket resident Seánín Ó Cearnaigh. He'd become ill and, because of bad weather, no doctor or priest could reach the island. After his death, continuing bad weather meant it was days before his body could be taken to a consecrated graveyard on the mainland. It was this tragic event that led the islanders to contact the 'powers that be' again asking that they be evacuated as a matter of urgency. The last remaining residents were evacuated on 17th November 1953 leaving Ireland's most westerly settlement deserted.

In 2014 a restoration scheme began on some of the houses, to be used as rental accommodation during the summer season, and a few are now available to rent. Don't forget though, there's no electricity, TV or Wi-Fi. Great Blasket is a true paradise for nature lovers, hikers and those who appreciate being far from civilisation. 🥰

(M) 💚

Pic. Kevin Nolan
https://www.instagram.com/kevinnolanphoto

11/02/2024

Have you ever wondered what it might be like to be a bird looking down over the Galway Cathedral?! Really? Me too 😁 Well, wonder no more 😬

#

07/02/2024

One of the most beautiful places in all the land. 🇮🇪

07/02/2024

The famous Pine Island in Connemara

05/02/2024

WHY SUGAR LOAF?

The name Sugar Loaf applies to many hills and mountains around the world, 450 of them give or take, but this one, known as the Great Sugar Loaf, is just a short hop from Dublin city centre. There's a popular misconception that the name Sugar Loaf refers to some kind of bread but in fact it refers to the stalagmite-like form in which sugar was sold up until the 19th-century, prior to the advent of granulated sugar, known as sugar loaves.

This Sugar Loaf stands apart from the other Wicklow mountains and dominates the surrounding landscape. As such, it has long been a landmark for all those travelling along the east coast, including pilgrims and scholars on their way to and from the monastic city at Glendalough

In Irish the mountain's name is Ó Cualann which means 'lump of Cualu', Cuala being a territory in ancient Gaelic Ireland which encompassed the Wicklow Mountains. Today it's popular with walkers and not a particularly challenging climb if you're reasonably fit. At the top you'll be rewarded with 360° views stretching from north Dublin to Wicklow, out over the Irish Sea and, on a clear day, all the way to Wales! 🥰

(M) 💚

Pic. Karol Sciubisz
https://www.instagram.com/labocavista

05/02/2024

Kildare Street

05/02/2024

05/02/2024

Doesn't it always rain in Ireland....?
....

INISHMORE 📍Aran Islands

05/02/2024

"Clare Abbey Sunrise" - An Irish sun rises over the County Clare countryside as viewed through one of the Gothic arched windows in the ruins of the Clare Abbey, an Augustinian monastery established in 1195 near Ennis.

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